Match Day Thread Arsenal 2 v 1 Swansea

First Arsenal goal was a deflection which went to the goalscorer who would have missed 9 times out of 10. You have to ask, whilst giving him some credit for finding the space, why Ramsey was unmarked in the box for the second.

 

Signs of improvement or a poor Arsenal ?
Still another loss chalked up so nothing really great to take from the game !
49%

 

The next three games are so important - the three Bs Brighton, Burnley and Bournemouth. We have to get 6 points minimum.
Right it's 7:55 pm here so out for something to eat and enjoy a 30 degree evening while I can

 

I’d drop him for Dyer or Routledge...both have pace, trickery and an eye for goal, so exactly what Ayew brings....except they are more team players.

Last week vs Leicester Ayew drove me nuts...refusing to pass to good runners, insisting he take the free kick from the right side of goal....then chipping the ball to the keeper Very selfish and not adding any real quality. Now, having seen yesterday miss, when Tammy had a tap in, its time for him to take a seat.

 

But you could say, for our goal, 9 times out of 10 a midfielder would not have scored and more often than not a forward would also have missed (saved). (Clucas did take his chance more like a striker, though.)
For the first goal three were a series of errors - Mawson got dragged out of position and tried but failed a tackle on the edge of the box, that pulled Fernandez, MVdH & Naughton into the centre, Ki, Carroll and Clucas were all following the ball (schoolboy stuff) which left massive space around the edge and left of the penalty area, naught on slipped trying to get a block in but his turned his back on the drive and Fabianski flapped.
Ramsey was unmarked because we lost concentration and were slow getting back, Naughton was lost upfield which meant VdH was dragged wide, Fede stayed central and Maswon kept close to his man, Naughton should have sen on Ramsey.

Although it looked like Ki was having one of the better performances he, Carroll and Fer were spectators for both goals.

Given we went there to park up for the afternoon that was not a successful tactic.
Arsenal were strolling and on another day could have had a few more.

I despair if we are suggesting that performance was an improvement to such a degree that we are on the right trajectory - more like road to tragedy.

 

Yet another three games that are so important

 

Having watched Goals on Sunday the pundits were blaming Naughton for being pulled out of position, I would also add that for the second when Naughton was pulled out of position Fer, as too often, just ambled back in to the area making no real effotr to close Ramsey down. It may be unfair on the youngsters but surely Clement must look at giving someone like Tyler Reid who has strength and pace a start. At least they might give more fire and effort.

 

Matts right so I'm gonna try to stop whinging and moaning about the players, they are what they are and we are what we are and besides, it hurts too much.

So I've donned my specs and had a good look at us and believe it or not, we're not in as bad a place as some would suggest, me included lately.

On the surface, right now we pose no threat up front while being susceptible to letting in a goal or two and there's good reasons for that. The squad had £30m worth of skill, talent and experience extracted from it in the summer and this loss was not adequately replaced.

Clement, at last, has joined in with our frustration and has agreed with what we've been saying for ages, that the squad is not balanced, but what's out of wack to make this the case?

A Venn diagram of our team could help answer that as it will look like three separate circles with no overlaps labeled defense, midfield, attack. Instead of joining up and overlapping there is nothing but empty space between the defense, the midfield and the midfield and attack, there is no link, there is no over lap.

In defense we are threadbare but the defense is playing ok. The problem our defense has is that it is on its own, it gets no cover or protection from the midfield yet its full-backs are expected to hare up feild, support the midfield and provide a good portion of our attack with the midfield offering poor cover hence the gaps at the back and hence the goals.

The squad has a plethora of players who can cover midfield but all are general issue midfielders with no specialists at all. Our midfield has no specialist DM to watch our backs and link with the midfield ahead. It also lacks a specialist AM to put pressure on the opposition, make their midfield take a step back, be creative and feed our starving attack.

Ahead of our general purpose midfield we have limp attack because it doesn't have a driving midfield behind it. It is also limp because the nature of strikers we have, Abraham, Bony when fit, to a lesser extent Ayew cant create their own chances and rely on a vibrant midfield which can create and get them in on goal so they can thrive.

So that's how I see it, we have too many general purpose, standard issue midfielders and if we are to survive and thrive we need specialists in the side in the form of a DM and an AM to balance out the team and link its disparate parts together which will save us goals and get us scoring up the other end again.

So then, in January the yanks need to redress the imbalance they've created in the squad by putting back some or all of the £30m worth of talent they extracted in the summer. If they do they still wont have invested a penny into the squad. They need to buy a couple of specialist players an AM a DM and a full-back to complement the off the shelf, standard issue, cheap options they begged stole and borrowed to make up the numbers in the summer.

Next three games will be very interesting

 

If only we had a world class midfielder to coach our players


Can anyone comment on fighting amongst Swans fans?

http://untold-arsenal.com/archives/65294

 

We are what we are now, unfortunately, we are weak at both LB and RB due to Olsson being injured, add to that the only real defensive midfielder we ever had is pretty much now retired, wasn't Mesa his replacement? as for Naughton he should have been replaced a few seasons back, it's an indictment on our coaching and boardroom that these areas of weakness have never been addressed correctly, take Leon for example, how long have the club had to come up with an adequate replacement? We can but dream of a Ferrie Bodde type midfield general, but can you ever see our current Boardroom having the intellect and ability to find or even want to find such players?

It's no exaggeration to say that at one time we controlled games because we had one of the very best midfields, our game was always based on the midfield control and dominance, but we have simply taken it all for granted and failed to produce the quality replacements, we are now just an average team due to a lack of due diligence in the boardroom.

Clement plays negative and boring football that cannot last, he may well do this because he knows that his players are simply not good enough, though I doubt Martinez would take such a defeatist attitude, he would train what he had into a competent unit, though even Martinez could never defend, he didn't seem to care much for a weak defence, you just needed to score more than the opposition.

I still think we don't have enough to stay up this season, and we will find out this reality over the next 3 games, lose those and January will look very desperate again..........

 

Good post , regarding Martinez he the core of his team as a manager and as a player knew exactly what each were capable of and developed the remainder to get them playing how he wanted us to play , Clement imo has inherited a side not of his making with the exception of Abraham and Sanches ,Clement is proof of another manger being let down by the board. .I'm confident we'll get a result v Brighton if not then Clement will be on borrowed time ,something I'm not happy tosay as the real enemy of the Club lies within and it's not the manager or players.
There is a planned protest prior to the game on Saturday something which should have taken place a long time ago and which the Trust should be at the forefront ,if the rumours are true about the yanks reneging on the offer presented to the Trust and accepted during the summer .

 

No surprise to me if they have reneged, they look the type to move the goal posts, besides they don't have the money to pay the Trust, so I just wish we would not get entrapped by these scum, and just go ahead with Court action, wish the Trust would grow some...............

 

Swop player after player after player it wont make any difference to what we are......A very poor mis-managed club from top to bottom. Anybody can say "he should play or he should not play" as much as you like and it won't make a blind bit of difference as we have been stripped of any Talent that we had and employed a clueless manager for the situation we are in......Long gone are the good days and we know who to blame for that.......The premiership is the weakest it has ever been with so many poor clubs and we im afraid are down the bottom of the pile......

 

Not to worry it's ginog to be a November to remember . I get the feeling when Olsson is healthy he might ride the bench for awhile . Naughton had a bad game but overall has done a pretty fair job IMO . Leads the team in overall ratings at Whoscored . Need Bony to get up and going . We should revert back to 4 defenders next game ... hope its Naughton , Fernandez , VDH , Clucas . VDH can sure jump . Figuring on at least 7 points this month , maybe more . We need to sign Ki and Fernansez to extending there contracts IMO , Ki before the January window opens . I get the feeling these 2 guys are going to play their best football the next few seasons .

 

I saw one Swansea fan being ejected by several stewards, I'm not sure what for, but I reckon he'd have a pretty good case of convicting one steward on grounds of ABH.

The steward had the guy in a throat lock, with his elbow on the blokes wind pipe and his head fully back. Extremely dangerous.

 

Thanks.
Not good but no where near the severity suggested by the report.

 

Hope he gets banned from away matches....There is no excuse that the stewards had to contain him. I know how it feels to be a steward at the away end, i did it for many years....

 

yep it looked naughty and excessive but then again was it an over reaction or necessary to control him ?

 

Why did they need to take this action?

 

I don't know ,there were a couple of incidents during the game , too much beer I suppose but that's a guess It happened close to the home fans so perhaps words were exchanged . Not nice to see all the same ,there were a lot of kids there so what they thought of it all is anyone's guess.